Edlingham Castle is a small
castleA castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress, in that it describes a residence of a monarch or...
ruin, having Scheduled Ancient Monument and
Grade I listed building status, in the care of
English HeritageEnglish Heritage . is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, in a valley to the west of
AlnwickAlnwick Alnwick Alnwick ( is a small market town in north Northumberland, England. The towns population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029....
,
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
EdlinghamEdlingham is a small village and civil parish in Northumberland in the north of England. At the 2001 census it had a population of 196. The road to Alnwick passes close by the village and the town of Rothbury is about away....
itself is little more than a hamlet with a church alongside the castle.
The ruins are mostly laid low though much of the
solarThe solar was a room in many English and French medieval manor houses, great houses and castles. In such houses, the main room was known as the Great Hall, in which all parts of the household would eat and live, with those of highest status being at the end, often on a raised dais, and those of...
tower still stands despite an impressive crack running several stories down to ground level. The foundations and part of the walls of the hall house,
gatehouseA gatehouse is a feature of European castles, manor houses and mansions. Originally a gatehouse was a fortified structure built over the gateway to a city or castle...
,
barbicanA barbican A barbican A barbican (from medieval Latin barbecana, "outer fortification of a city or castle," a general Romanic word, perhaps from Arabic or Persian cf...
and other courtyard buildings are still visible, most dating from the 16th century.
The castle - more properly a fortified
manor houseA manor house or fortified manor-house is a country house, which has historically formed the administrative centre of a manor , the lowest unit of territorial organization in the feudal system...
typical of many
medievalThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
houses in the
North of EnglandNorthern England, also known as the North of England, or simply The North is a cultural region or identity of England in the United Kingdom. It is not a government administrative region, but rather an amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the...
- guards one of the few approaches to
AlnwickAlnwick Alnwick Alnwick ( is a small market town in north Northumberland, England. The towns population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029....
through the hills to its west. Its fortifications were increased in response to the
border warfareThe Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries....
which raged between
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in the period from about 1300 to 1600.
History
By 1174, a manor house at the location was in the possession of a John of Edlingham. In 1294, a descendant, Walter of Edlingham sold it to William de Felton, who strengthened it by building strong ramparts and a gatehouse, fortifying the main hall and adding other buildings inside a courtyard. In 1396 Elizabeth de Felton inherited it, marrying Sir Edmund Hastings, who added a strong solar tower. Their descendants occupied the castle and estate until 1514; it was then leased to George Swinburne of Capheaton, whose family held it until the 1700s.
During this time it gradually fell into disrepair, with most of the buildings dismantled to build nearby farmhouses in the 1660s, but leaving the solar tower intact. In 1978 the
Department for the EnvironmentThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom...
acquired the site and conducted extensive
archaeologicalArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
excavations, prior to which rubble filled the solar tower to a height of three metres.
The site is now in the care of
English HeritageEnglish Heritage . is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
and is easily accessible from the nearby church of
St. John the BaptistJohn the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of Baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel...
. There is an interpretation board on-site, while more detailed leaflets are available from the church for a small donation.